HB 2297 Virginia House of Delegates · 2025 Regular Session

School boards; employment of school resource officers in each public elementary & secondary school.

Summary

School boards; employment of school resource officers in each public elementary and secondary school. Requires each school board to enter into a collaborative agreement with the local law-enforcement agency to employ at least one school resource officer in each public elementary and secondary school in the local school division and provides that no school board shall be granted any full or partial waiver from such staffing requirements. The bill contains a contingent effective date that states that the foregoing requirement shall become effective beginning with the fiscal year in which funding has been provided pursuant to the general appropriation act to fully fund such requirement.

Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2025

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Jan 8, 2025 Last action Feb 4, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Introduced → HED Sub: K-12 Subcommittee Substitute · 3 edits

MINOR

The bill was amended from its original introduced version to a substitute version by the House Committee on Education. The primary substantive change is the addition of a requirement for school boards that do not currently employ school resource officers to either apply for grants to place them or submit a written explanation for not doing so. This strengthens the original mandate requiring school resource officers in every public school.

Scope change

The bill's scope expanded to include a compliance mechanism for school divisions that currently lack school resource officers, requiring them to either act or formally justify inaction.

REQUIREMENT

School boards without current school resource officers must either apply for grants to place them in schools or submit a written statement explaining why they chose not to apply.

ELIGIBILITY

The grant program now explicitly allows applications from school boards that do not currently have school resource officers, whereas the original bill focused on matching grants for those who already had collaborative agreements.

TECHNICAL

The bill was renumbered and formatted as a substitute amendment rather than an original introduction, with updated patron information and committee review status.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Jan 28, 2025

Lower · Passed

Subcommittee recommends laying on the table (5-Y 3-N)

lower

Jan 24, 2025

Committee

Assigned Educ sub: K-12 Subcommittee

lower

Jan 8, 2025

Committee

Referred to Committee on Education

lower

1 primary · 29 co-sponsors